海角视频

In this month where we have seen a presidential election rollercoaster I am reminded of the ability of American campaigns to use language and messaging in a way that connects with people.

翱产补尘补鈥檚 鈥淵es We Can鈥� and Trump鈥檚 鈥淢ake America Great Again鈥� are recent examples of the ability of political campaigns to build messages that not only look good as slogans but cut through into the minds of the voters, and importantly get repeated by them during those campaigns.

The American political strategist James Carville is not聽 a household name in Wales. However, his slogan caused great political upset when Bill Clinton beat the popular sitting President, George H.W. Bush in the 1992 US presidential election 鈥淚t鈥檚 the economy, stupid!鈥� is better known as a line than Carville, the man who coined the phrase for the Clinton campaign. In many ways you can understand why he used it. He recognised, as do so many political campaigns on this side of the pond too, that the economy is a major issue in elections and can be the overriding factor on how people vote.

In the Welsh Parliament elections of the past the focus has tended to be on health, social care and education - it鈥檚 no surprise with half the Welsh Government鈥檚 budget going on our Welsh NHS.

In Wales though it鈥檚 been all too easy just to focus on where the money is spent and not how the wealth is created, or how the taxes are raised. That of course has now changed. The economy and the role of the Welsh Government, now and in the future, is more important as we head to next year鈥檚 election.

This year has been a wakeup call, the response to the pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in the Welsh economy and the lack of delivery by the Welsh Government.

聽It has failed to help grow the economy at a comparable rate to the rest of the 海角视频. We have simply not kept up in the 20 years of devolution and there are communities across Wales that are struggling now as they were back then. This isn鈥檛 good enough.

The 海角视频 Government鈥檚 efforts to provide financial support to the Welsh Government and economic resilience backing to our businesses and jobs has been on a scale not seen before. This month the Chancellor announced further financial support with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme now running until the end of March 2021, this means that the 海角视频 Government will have continuously backed job retention in Wales throughout the entirety of the pandemic.聽

A further 拢600m聽 has been made available to the Welsh Government bringing the total additional funding now to 拢5bn. We鈥檝e seen a massive effort to protect thousands of jobs to help keep people in work.

It is the importance of Wales at the heart of the 海角视频 that has made the difference in this time of challenge. I am passionately Welsh and equally British. I鈥檓 typical of the overwhelming majority of Welsh people.

To me my love of Wales sits perfectly fine with my love for the 海角视频, our shared history, values and purpose in good times and in those where we face adversity. That belief in the 海角视频 is felt across the mainstream political spectrum, it鈥檚 not just Conservatives who value the 海角视频, there are hundreds of thousands of people who vote Labour who also believe the same.

It鈥檚 easy to just be nostalgic about the 海角视频, but it鈥檚 more than that. If anything this year has highlighted the economic case and where we benefit in such challenge. It鈥檚 also the opportunity of a shared destiny which is why I want to work with the 海角视频 Government in building up our infrastructure, levelling up the economy and fundamentally creating more jobs for local people to provide for them and their families.

Those on the nationalist left would have us believe that the romantic notion of an independent Wales would somehow magically deliver an economy of wealth creation, big infrastructure programmes and better paid jobs, an economy capable of sustaining our nation in good times and bad. The experience of the pandemic tells a different story, that without our membership of the 海角视频, we would have been absolutely sunk.

Economically sunk, with more businesses collapsing and job losses on a colossal scale, crippling local communities and families, leading to a longer recession, homelessness and ill health. The effect without the support of the 海角视频 Government would have been felt for decades to come.

Financially sunk, with little to spend on reinforcing the amazing work done by our local authorities, health and social care, and third sector services.

Astonishing the Welsh Government have continued to fail to use all of the funding made available by the 海角视频 Government. I fail to grasp how they can sit on money and not spend it. They haven鈥檛 for example spent 拢1.81bn of the 拢5bn that was allocated by the 海角视频 Government, and with businesses needing our help we cannot afford to be sluggish. Businesses can鈥檛 afford to wait for the Welsh Government to launch new funding opportunities, after closing the last one after just 24 hours.

What the past few months and weeks tells us is that we need to see the government demonstrating agility in its economic response to the pandemic, pace in delivering an economic strategy that will build Wales out of this, and hope for thousands of Welsh workers who will look to Cathays Park to play its part.

In elections past the role of the Welsh Government in delivering a robust, productive and rewarding economy that provided long term skilled jobs didn鈥檛 seem to matter. Well, it does now.

鈥淚t鈥檚 jobs, stupid!鈥�